If Nintendo was banking on everyone carrying an iPod with them to hear music, then I must say that actually ain't too risky at all, considering how many people have them.

Also, I apologize for the extreme overreaction yesterday. I didn't notice the e-shop hadn't been updated, so I thought they were screwing us over. Looks like I'll find out tomorrow what we will get.....

Schrau wrote:Bear in mind that most Metroid games (especially the Primes) are survival horror.

Chris wrote:Yeah exactly, it's hard to miss, Capcom was pointing out I think it's hard to use as an MP3 player not that it doesn't have one.

Actually... Everyone was under the impression the 3DS simply can't play MP3s whatsoever.

CapCom wrote:And it can't play music like an mp3 player

Apothem wrote:there's no logical reason Nintendo couldn't have included an MP3 player.

rondus18 wrote:Nintendo didn't add mp3 support because they didn't want to pay royalties for the decoder.

Chris wrote:There is also a camera and you can stream videos to it and browse the web, it can do quite a lot besides games...

True. Nintendo is slowly making their devices more and more useful. the DSi was a big improvement over the DS, and the 3DS is a big improvement over the DSi. The 3DS can be used to take pictures, shoot videos, browse the web, take notes, watch Netflix, watch Hulu Plus, listen to music, and hey, play good-looking games in 3D, too. It might not do as many things as an iPhone, but it does enough to keep it in my pocket almost all the time.

I was talking about the DS family (i.e. DS, DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL) and more specifically the claim that if you can hack mp3 support into the DSi there is therefore no logical reason for Nintendo not to have added it.

I think we can assume that massive price cut means they don't plan on making a profit per 3DS sold like the Wii. So Nintendo is now in a similar boat as Sony and Microsoft with the 3DS. They are aiming to sell more software per 3DS owner than the DS and Wii were aiming to do. Which is great since it means they'll be focusing on the core gamer market and not the causal market as much.

rondus18 wrote:I think we can assume that massive price cut means they don't plan on making a profit per 3DS sold like the Wii. So Nintendo is now in a similar boat as Sony and Microsoft with the 3DS. They are aiming to sell more software per 3DS owner than the DS and Wii were aiming to do. Which is great since it means they'll be focusing on the core gamer market and not the causal market as much.

I think Nintendo still makes a profit when it sells a 3DS for $170. A smaller one, obviously, but it's there. I'm pretty sure they once mentioned they would never sell hardware below cost.

kronoridley wrote:Alright! The eShop has been updated! Now let's see......

rondus18 wrote:I think we can assume that massive price cut means they don't plan on making a profit per 3DS sold like the Wii. So Nintendo is now in a similar boat as Sony and Microsoft with the 3DS. They are aiming to sell more software per 3DS owner than the DS and Wii were aiming to do. Which is great since it means they'll be focusing on the core gamer market and not the causal market as much.

I think Nintendo still makes a profit when it sells a 3DS for $170. A smaller one, obviously, but it's there. I'm pretty sure they once mentioned they would never sell hardware below cost.

If they can make a profit after an $80 price cut then they were ripping people off big time. They'd have also left themselves open to being undercut by Sony, which I don't need to remind Nintendo is a company that a) kicked there ass for two generation in a row in a market previously dominated by Nintendo and b) want's to do the same to them again in the handheld market. I just can't see how pricing the 3DS so high in the first place if more than $80 of that MSRP was pure profit was a smart idea.

Also, this sounds to me like they are planning to lose money on 3DS hardware sales:

Iwata wrote:First of all, as far as the current term, ending in March 2012, is concerned, we have decided that driving the sales of Nintendo 3DS hardware is our main priority, and in a sense, we can say that by doing this, we have sacrificed our profitability for this fiscal year. We came to the conclusion that we needed to make that bold investment, instead of focusing just on this term’s profitability, so that we would be able to make the Nintendo 3DS an important foundation for Nintendo for years to come. During the fiscal year ending March 2013, we are expecting the profitability of Nintendo 3DS hardware to improve significantly. In other words, we are not anticipating a situation where we must expand the hardware by generating a large loss on the sales of the hardware. As long as we can create sufficient momentum, I think we will be able to come close to our usual course of business operations in the next fiscal year.

Hmm... Maybe they are selling at a loss. However, I think that $170 will become profitable pretty soon. We all know it's going to take a looong time for the Vita to cost less than $250. And those damn memory cards cost a fortune.

Apothem wrote:Nintendo should just get with the damned 21st century and add, perhaps in a later iteration, some proper multimedia applications. It supports SD cards, and I know for a fact you could hack MP3 functionality into the DSi so there's no logical reason Nintendo couldn't have included an MP3 player. They simply didn't want to, being irrationally opposed to expanding upon the capabilities of their devices.

*is currently enjoying the MP3 player that came factory-installed on the 3DS.*

Apothem wrote:Nintendo should just get with the damned 21st century and add, perhaps in a later iteration, some proper multimedia applications. It supports SD cards, and I know for a fact you could hack MP3 functionality into the DSi so there's no logical reason Nintendo couldn't have included an MP3 player. They simply didn't want to, being irrationally opposed to expanding upon the capabilities of their devices.

*is currently enjoying the MP3 player that came factory-installed on the 3DS.*

Yeah, I don't know where the idea came that it didn't have an MP3 player, but there's quite clearly a "3DS Sound" app on the 3DS.

And here's instructions on how to use it.Furthermore, the newly-released Nintendo Zone lets you download free demos. You just have to find a WiFi hot spot at your local Starbucks, Best Buy, McDonalds, or whoever offers it and hop on their wifi.